I would like to voice my concern that the city deal assembly is not functioning nearly as well as it could do, and may not be value for money for the people that attend the meetings. Given the hourly rate equivalent of those that attend, are they, and are we getting their full benefit in a traditional meeting where only one person speaks at a time? Could Mr Hughes instead of giving presentations at meetings upload them to Youtube for attendees & the public to watch them (or have somewhere to watch them prior to the meeting at local council/community buildings) so that we can go into substantive debate straight away?

Since its inception, there have been no substantial open, safe spaces facilitated by the city deal structures for people to work collaboratively to develop and improve ideas for our city-region’s future. The publicity and engagement has been weak. I have tried and encouraged you to engage systematically with large educational organisations and employers in & around the city, taking advantage of existing state-funded programmes such as the NCS, and we’ve had nothing.

Despite my continued urging and prompting, you’ve not got in touch with organisations such as the Haverhill Rail Group. Despite your promises at the start of the year on communications, I have had nothing from your organisation on how best to use social and digital media.